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Norman Cook has been in the music business for a long time. Back in the
mid 80’s he was a band member of The Housemartins. When they split up,
he formed the group Beats International, and he had a number one hit
with "Dub Be Good To Me", a cover of the original song "Just be good to
me". The Beats international released two albums “Let Them Eat Bingo” in
1990 and “Excursion on the Version" in 1991. Norman went on to form
Freakpower, with whom he released two albums; “Drive Thru Booty” in 1994
and “More Of Everything for Everybody” in 1996. The track “Turn On Turn
In Cop Out” was a big hit for them, when Levi’s picked it up for their
advertising campaign. Norman went on making a Pizzaman album. He founded
Skint records - with Damien Harris, and the alias that he is most know
as today was born – Fatboy Slim. He made his debut record under this
name in 1997, “Better Living Thru Chemistry” and around the same time he
released the Mighty Dub Katz “Magic Carpet” which became an Ibiza Anthem
and a huge hit for him. In 1998 Freakpower was put on the shelf due to
his success as Fatboy Slim, and he released his second album “You've
come a long way baby” the same year. It was a hit all over the world,
including hits like “The Rockafeller Skank”, “Gangster Tripping”,
“Praise You” and “Right Here Right Now”. Norman Cook was wanted all
over, he was asked by Robbie Williams and Madonna to do remixes, but he
turn them down – but there was one he didn’t turn down and that was his
wife to be and mother to his son – the former BBC Radio One DJ/journalist
Zoë Ball. In 2001 he released his third album "Halfway Between The
Gutter And The Stars". Tracks like "Sunset (Bird Of Prey)", "Demons", "Song
For Shelter", "Weapon Of Choice" and "Ya Mama" once more confirmed his
position on the dance floor. The year 2002 welcomed the launch of
Norman’s own record label “Southern Fried” and the release of “Fatboy
Slim Live On Brighton Beach” album. In 2004 he released “Palookaville”
and now in 2006 he is ready to collect all his best tracks and to
release “Why Try Harder: the Greatest Hits” |
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How would you describe your own music?
- I don’t know – It used to be called “Big Beat” – but we have moved on
from that. Hopefully it is something like dance music, but with an
accessible poppy hock. I think “Star 69” is a perfect Norman Cook record,
if you take the vocal off, it actually quite hard-core techno record,
but it has this catchy vocal that your granny can sing along to.
Are you happy with the way your career is going,
or is there something you wanted to do differently?
- No not really, I have had a marvellous career. I think you have
the downs to appreciate the ups, things have sort of gone my way – so I
have enjoyed the rollercoaster so much. There are a few records I
wouldn’t have made – I am not giving you any names. It has been a very
pleasurable rollercoaster so far, the mistakes I have made has been nice
to learn from.
What kind of music inspires you and from where do
you draw your inspiration?
- Normally just big piles of other people’s records, I mean when I am
going to do an album, the first thing I do - I go to LA and spend about
3 days going though all the shops, buying boxes full of albums at 49
cents each. If they got Afros on the cover I bye it, I normally don’t
like sampling records that was a big hit, I normally buy a load of
obscure records and flick though them, finding noises I like. That is
originally the inspiration, but then I always try to make it a bit more
underground, but then my other big influence - being brought up on the
Beatles and English pop music - so somehow down the line this kind of
catchy hock always arrive.
So you are not afraid of overproducing your music?
- Yes I am very afraid of overproducing my stuff. Most of my most
successful tracks are ones that happen quickest, and I sometimes have
this ruler, if have spend week on a track and it still not working then
it probably means that the long I spend on it the worse it will get.
What do you listen to at home?
- At the moment, because I have been remixing and DJ’ing a lot, I just
want to listen to something that doesn’t sound like me. The soundtrack
to “The Big Lebowski” is a big favourite at the moment; a lot of
soundtracks is a very good way to unwind. Tom and Ed’s album of course (The
Chemical Brothers) – but I find it hard to listen to it for pleasure,
because I know them so well, I am always analysing it instead of
enjoying it. I always come back to the Beatles when I need to clear my
ears.
How is a day in Norman Cock’s life?
- Get up late, listening to records I have been send for DJ’ing, I
normally get 5-8 records a day. So in the beginning of the day I’m
listening to CD’s for the label and doing some business on the phone.
Mid afternoon playing with my son, and around eight I either go into the
studio or go off DJ’ing. Depending on which day of the week it is. It is
quite nice to be dad and businessman or dad in the studio: Friday and
Saturday you are off DJ’ing. |
In the 80’ and
early 90’ the bands were the pop stars, do you see DJ as the new pop
stars?
- At the moment yes – when I was young everybody wanted electric guitars
and now my little nephew only want decks. So at the moment yes – but pop
stars are always going to be pop stars. I mean the rise of the super
star DJ’s the last couple of years, means that a lot of young kids want
to be DJs, rather being lead guitar players, but that will change in a
few years they get bored and they want to be lead guitarist again.
So do you feel it is ok to get paid as much as
certain DJ’s get paid?
- Sometimes it is a little embarrassing, when you find out what you are
getting paid and what the support DJ is being paid. But what can I do, I
can’t demand that I get less money. Some people say “are you worth it?”
and I say; I don’t think I am 10 or 100 times better than the DJ that is
on before me, but you are being paid to attract the crowd. I don’t have
fixed prices it varies on how many people can come in, the price starts
a 500£ and goes up to 100.000£.
How do you feel about piracy – I understand there
are a lot of illegal copies of your album floating around?
- Not a problem really, the official version is selling enough. Lately I
was in China, and one the questions I got was – did you know that 98% of
your sale is bootleg, and I said it doesn’t matter because I didn’t know
that I sold any records in China anyway, and I said it goes both ways,
when this interview is finished I will buy a ton of bootleg DVD’s.
How do you see the possibilities of the Internet?
- I am not into it at all – I don’t have a computer. For some people it
is their social life which is interesting, for some people they need it
for their job. I don’t need it for my job and don’t want to be caught up
in it, knowing me if I have it I will use my evenings on that instead on
making records, probably downloading porn. For me I have a mobile phone
and a fax and that is all I need.
Do you find it hard to find records?
- No – I mean there are a couple of month where there is nothing
particularly that inspires me. But two hours are never enough time to
play all the records I want to play. At the beach show I could only play
for 2 hours, when I am travelling I can’t really play 4 hour sets
because I have to get up and fly the next day. If it is a show and I
don’t have a show the next day, I will play for 3 or 4 hours – the
longer they get into it I get into it. The longest I have played was for
6 hours, and that was for the Boutique’s second birthday – it was fun
one of my favourite sets. I played from the doors opened to the club
closed, I got to play a lot of records I normally don’t get to play, and
you get to build up the crowd in your own pace.
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Your mix is very
direct and sometimes rough?
- Yeah – a lot of the deep house DJ’s can do two minutes flowing mixes,
but many of the records I play there is so much going on, I can’t play
two of them at once. My mixing style has always been bang them together
– hopefully at the right time.
As a DJ – do you play differently for a big
crowd or a small crowd?
- Oh definitely – I have two kinds of record boxes – I have my stadium
box and I have my club box. They varies in how well know the tunes are
and the amount of what is going on, in a club you play some obscure
stuff, and people go with you. At big gigs it has to be a huge sounding
record or a record that people is going to know. For instance when I
played at the beach, I played some of my own stuff, but when I play in a
club I never ever play my own record.
So you have never thought about playing your own
stuff live?
- No never – it wouldn’t work – the way I make the record, it wouldn’t
work, because if I have musicians playing it – it would sound like a
wedding cabaret version. If I use the studio technology it would take
two days to set it all up, and I just press the “on” switch. The
vocalist, you know – I can’t persuade Macy Gray to come and Jim Morrison
isn’t available. I was in bands for 10 years and I haven’t got the
patience to go through soundchecks and arguing with the drummer and
guitarist – I’m much happier being DJing with a box of records - doing
my stuff.
Do you spend a lot time abroad?
- I spend half of my year abroad – I used to - until I had a baby boy.
For about 3 years I spend probably 6 month working outside the UK,
especially in America, Australia and Japan. I am doing an awful lot of
travelling, the last two month I have been in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina,
Japan, China, Singapore and Hong Kong. I think I play more abroad than I
play in England. I basically play at the Boutique, which is my residency
and I play at the Fabric in London that is also my residency. That is
all I play in England. |
How do you see the scene in the world compared to the
scene in England?
- Every country is different. The first time I go there it is me finding out
what they like. When I am packing my box for Australia it is quite significantly
different to if I was packing my box for America. Every country is a different
style, I can’t really explain it – Americans like quite hard and they are not so
much into tunes, they just like noise. Australians they like it a little more
bouncy and they do like a vocal and a tune – the Japanese like it really bouncy
– there are these subtle differences. The more I go to a country, the more I get
a feel of what they like.
How do you decide on what to play - Do you have a
pre-prepared set in your mind when you start DJ’ing or do you change this during
the set – reading the audience?
- No not at all, that it why the packing of the record boxes is the most
important thing, because I can go different directions regarding the crowd. If I
just brought the set I was intended to play, if the crowd didn’t want that, then
I would be stuck. For instance if I go to a new country, I normally take to
boxes with me, so I can cope with anything. So normally when I have been to the
same country a few times I only take one box with me. But I still think being
flexible is very important for me. A half hour before I go on I normally go out
and take a sniff of the crowd and also to check out what the DJ before me is
playing, and then I will choose my first record. So when I go on – I just go and
bang the first record on, and after that I’m making it up. |
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Interview by: Christian Almind |
Interview was first published April 2002 in Clubbing Magazine #4 |
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Copyright Clubbing Magazine 2001-2006